Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close Grief Analysis

Grief is a great sorrow. The ways in which grief manifests itself can take many forms. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, By Jonathan Safran Foer, Oskar Schell and the rest of his family experience some sort of grief. The Schell family expresses their grief very differently from each other. Oskar becomes anxious. The Mom becomes distant. The Grandpa becomes withdrawn. The Grandma desires privacy. In the end they are able to overcome their grief. They do this through their relationship with their family. Foer is trying to show how people can overcome their grief by connecting with others. Oskar Schell is one who experiences tremendous grief over the death of his father. His father always seemed to help Oskar sort out his thoughts. But when the father dies, Oskar’s mind becomes full of thoughts and questions. Oskar begins to be anxious about everything. Through this he tries to find a bigger meaning behind everything. He does this to gain closure over his father’s death. He soon finds a key in his father’s closet. He tries to …show more content…
How the mother reacts to the grief is very different from that of Oskar. Instead of searching for something, she becomes almost emotionally unavailable to her son. She wants to give him the support he needs, but because of her grief she struggles with that. The mother’s attempts multiple times to get over her grief. She says that she smiles and laughs hoping that the pain will go away. And she tries to find a new boyfriend. She unfortunately in unable to cope with it. Once Oskar digs up his father’s grave, his grief somewhat passes. When Oskar becomes more emotionally available to his mother, she is able to come to terms with her grief. While her grief is not gone, it does present itself to her. Accepting her grief is one of the first steps to heal. If it had not been for Oskar seeking a stronger relationship with her, she would have never been able to start to get past the